We are planning on travelling to Australia in January. I am most excited about our trip to Darwin and Alice Springs. We have not book any flights yet so I am interested in what the weather will be like in January. One of the things I want to experience is the electrical storms.

After a certain amount of reasearch we will be flying into Melbourne spending a few days with friends and then driving up the cost to Brisbane. Maybe fly or train to Cairns. Fly from Cairns to Darwin. Take the Ghan to Alice Springs back to Melbourne.

We would like to take in as much as we can that is unique to Australia that we would be on our above mentioned route. Both my husband and I are in our early 60's and fairly fit. However, we are not into camping out or a lot of hiking especially in extreme heat.

We are open to any suggestions at this point.

Thank you.

I previously mentioned that the Top End is one of my favorite places in Australia and encouraged you to continue your visit if you felt you could deal with the heat and humidity. I don't blame you for wanting to alter your plans because, personally, I wouldn't been keen to go to the Top End at that time of year either.
I would second the recommendation of going to Tasmania. We spent 5 days there and would have loved to have stayed longer. Unfortunately, we did not have time to head out to Cradle Mountain, but I think that would right up your alley.
(BTW, we spent a week in Montana (mostly in GNP) for our vacation this summer and loved it. We'd been there over 20 years ago and were glad that we had a chance to return and see a different part of the state.)

longhorn, you were lucky that your week in Montana coincided with a low fire season (knock wood). Some years the smoke is so thick you can't SEE the mountains.

Thanks for the continued input.

Idy,
A season with very high variability in the weather. The advantages are though there are few other tourists and it can provide some special experiences. Suggest you have maximum flexibility and or insurance.

Does enduring the hot sticky build-up weather in November qualify us for low-season hotel rates?
Wishful thinking, probably.

You could always expect there to be lower season specials on anywhere and you'll find that leaving your booking to within a month or a fortnight of time there using any of:
www.wotif.com
www.quickbeds.com and http://www.lastminute.com.au/home.html

Hi Kimby!

I agree with Judilie - there's nothing you "have to" do on your vacation except what's of interest to you. Many people think they MUST do "the big three" when visiting Australia (Sydney, the Reef and the Rock).

Judilie, while I'm sure some photos could have been enhanced, the colors change depending on the time of day & how the sun hits the rock; it changes all the time.

Saltuarius makes a good point - much of this comes down to personal preferences -- my husband's brother lives in Las Vegas and his sister lives in Reno - everytime we visit I think "ugh, how can they live here?" People find beauty in the desert; I'm just not one of them. :)

Suggestions about Tasmania from Judilie and Longhorn are good ones -- you can easily get a direct flight from Sydney with no problem.

Hope this is helpful!

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

We're now leaning toward skipping Darwin and the top end (for this trip anyway) and spending more time in Queensland, including the Whitsundays.

So now I wonder, should we keep the campervan and drive along the coast to Airlie Beach, or loop back to Cairns and fly to Proserpine - or wherever the airport is?

We would probably do a 3-day sail and wouldn't want to park a vehicle that we were paying for for three days, but still figuring out the logistics.

Then we'd want to fly in and out of Alice or Uluru for the Rock, which we DO want to see, but are recoiling against the prices of lodging in the area. Does it make more sense to fly to the Rock from Cairns or from the Whitsundays? We'd be finishing up in Sydney no matter what, since our flight out is from there, on the 20th day of our trip.

Tasmania, I think I'd save for another trip, though it does sound like the weather would be about ideal in November.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Unless things have change recently, there are no direct flights between the Whitsundays and the centre in either direction.

Wouldn't need to be a direct flight, so long as it didn't involve really a long layover in the connnecting city or exorbitant airfare. (Living in Montana, we're USED to having to connect to go just about anywhere.)

From Proserpine, in YOUR experience, which connecting city would likely have the best schedules and/or fares?

Thanks!

We were working the flight schedule for our trip in 2007 and found that Proserpine isn't very easy to get places except Sydney. We flew the non-stop from Hamilton Island to Cairns, which was a bit pricy (but not exorbitant) but got us there in the morning so we had the whole rest of the day to do things. I believe there is a non-stop flight from Cairns to Uluru. I wouldn;t consider anything other than a non-stop because the distance is so long AND there is a time change to factor in. Just 'cuz you're used to it, doesn't mean you have to spend your vacation making long connections! I haven't read all of the posts, but have you considered going from Sydney directly to Uluru--i.e., doing the hottest thing during the cooler part of your trip? Good luck and happy planning!
Sally in Seattle

Thanks SnR.

Our flight into Australia lands Oct 23 in Cairns (which being in the north tropics, we thought WAS the hottest part of our trip!) Our return flight is from Sydney, 19 days later. We had expected to fly Uluru to Sydney before spending our last couple days in Sydney.

Getting from Cairns to wherever we return the motorhome (looking like Cairns, if we want one with Shower/Toilet) and from there to Uluru or Alice Springs, is the remaining dilemma.

Unless we give up on the Whitsundays, we're either gonna have to do a lot of driving, or some long flights with connections. Or settle for a campervan without "facilities" and stay in established camping grounds...

Time's a-wasting. It's only about 7 weeks off, and we have yet to make domestic flight reservations or RV/motorhome reservations!

Anyone else?

Last month Sydney and Brisbane were both hotter than Cairns for both minimums and maximums and in October this is likely to happen more often.

Suggest give up the Whitsundays, beautiful as they are and spend more time north of Townsville. See the hinterlands a little.

Saltuarius,
That's the conclusion I had been reaching,too. Thanks for confirming it.

KimbyMT, you are most welcome. It is a delight when the OP returns to read the posts AND responds; one feels that one is doing a service rather than just sounding off.

Such a person as yourself will find Australians very welcoming and helpful. If not let me know and they'll be in for a ritualised spearing (our traditional method of dealing with miscreants).

Thankyou for thanking me for thanking you! ;-)

Sometimes I hesitate to clutter up the board with a short post that doesn't add to the substantive material on the thread. Good to be reminded that thanks are never clutter!

Now I have to remember to return after the trip and post what we actually ended up doing and how it worked out.